No man... James was outstanding in his first year at Madrid. I thought he was going to be a superstar. But then things went to his head and he started to party too hard + take things for granted. Lost his status and his ego got hurt to boot.

In any case, we're not going to agree on this. Assuming the midfield trio remain, we need scorers who can playmake as well. Isco alone is not enough. We need another.

I don't really see how James and Fekir can be compared. To me the problem with James is that he is a creative player who mostly can play as a CAM, but also on the wing- exactly what Isco is doing for us now. James had to displace both Bale and Isco to have a spot. In the end he whined too much and now he is gone.

Fekir is a player who has played more centrally as a SS/CF/CAM type player throughout his career and the only player he would be displacing is Benzema.

I really am not seeing what attributes he possesses/ doesn't possess that exclude him from being an option. This intangible "not able to lead a line" I don't really buy until we see him in our system.

well you have to define some kind of parameters to look at players and to decide whether they would fit in your team, if not, then you have imagine any player that you like and fantasize that he will do well here. And well, no one will have arguments against until "we see him in our system" as you put it.

But may i ask, if you are willing you sign someone like Fekir to give him that freedom to replace Benzema and to play around CR, why don't you do that with Asensio?

Well, what kinds of parameters do you propose? I think Fekir and some of the other names I have listed are central frontmen who are good playmakers, good technically, and can also score. These are the types of parameters I have mentioned, I think that is what we need in our CF. So no this isn't a shot in the dark as you seem to assume, but we have to see what he does in our system before we can make a sweeping claim like "he cannot lead the line." Benzema is our current CF and I would argue he can't lead anything.

As for Asensio, he isn't a CF the last I checked. He's competing with Isco, and if Isco was performing as poorly as Benzema I would give Asensio the same freedom to see if he is a better fit in our system.

anyhow, i just gave my opinion based off what i have seen of Fekir. To me, he is a poor fit. I think you guys are getting fooled by his numbers and the role he plays at Lyon, which allows him to score this much, does not exist in Madrid. And he is too young, and does not have enough experience to expect that he will come here and straight up ball, he is not the great.

This is the shit that makes this thread and our situation so maddening. Look at those damn stats from our forward.

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People of Eternia! I stand before the Great Eye of the galaxy. Chosen by destiny to receive the powers of Greyskull! This inevitable moment will transpire before your eyes, even as He-Man himself bears witness to it. Now. I, Skeletor, am Master of the Universe!

I'll gladly take Fekir at this point. Really. He is clearly not a n9 but at least he fking shoots the damn ball.

_________________

People of Eternia! I stand before the Great Eye of the galaxy. Chosen by destiny to receive the powers of Greyskull! This inevitable moment will transpire before your eyes, even as He-Man himself bears witness to it. Now. I, Skeletor, am Master of the Universe!

People of Eternia! I stand before the Great Eye of the galaxy. Chosen by destiny to receive the powers of Greyskull! This inevitable moment will transpire before your eyes, even as He-Man himself bears witness to it. Now. I, Skeletor, am Master of the Universe!

Our limitations has been salary load (and salary progression ladder). Being a non profit type of organization, we have have to keep the salary load within club's income plus bear in mind other expenses also have to fit within this. Barca have had issues with this the past 3-5 years. With Ronaldo etc salary load, we are near that limitation.

Thus in order to accommodate any large salaried new players, basically someone has to go. The other factor in salaries has been not wanting to pay a new arrival outside of the salary progression ladder as both Pogba and Mbappe were demanding. No way were they going to pay a kid no matter how good more than Ronaldo, similarly for a midfielder. The other factor with Pogba was his demands for image rights. Not even Ronaldo gets what he was demanding plus it would reduce club's income further complicating matters. Now as to next season, if they shed Ronaldo, Bale, Benz or some of them, then we have increased salary capacity for incoming players.

The 250M you mentioned is for transfer fees and that is a totally separate budget (Capital). Although Flo has been reluctant to enter this new transfer price escalation, the club does have the capacity to pay these prices, however such player must be worth that amount in Flo's mind. i.e he may pay that for a forward but no way for a midfielder or a defender. It remains to be seen if this escalation will hold up. If you ignore the recent EPL increased but not exorbitant transfer prices for a few forwards, we are talking about only Pogba, Neymar and Mbappe. Three players don't set a doubling of transfer prices market.

Plus PSG has come up with these sponsorship etc deals to increase their capacity and even then must sell players to fit within the FFP. Man U had no problem making Pogba their main player and basically had no one on salary near the levels of Ronaldo etc. Oh forgot about Dembele, that was Barca using some of the money they got from PSG.

You can't ignore EPL and the other elite clubs. Because that's what you're competing against. Bayern don't pay those prices because they can fleece other Bundi teams so they don't need to. But if they start losing... they will join without a second's thought. Juve paid 90 mil for Higuain. But they just don't have the sustainable income to handle paying the big amounts.

In the end, EPL revenue isn't going away (rising actually) and PSG, Barca and eventually Bayern aren't going away either. So either Madrid wants to compete or it doesn't for these top players. It's pretty clear that players won't come to Madrid at a discount.

@Old man BillYeah I know, I read your last post on said topic. Just don't see Madrid actually spending 250 on a single footballer. Quarter billion on several footballers, yes but on 1 guy, that's kinda improbable in my opinion. Not that we don't have the money, obviously the club is quite lucrative. Just not too sure they'll throw an entire budget on just one player.

@HansSure but you're ignoring the huge backlash Levy would face if he sold Kane. Spurs fans actually feel they are part of the "big team" group and seeing their Chairman entertain the idea of selling their most key player in Kane is gonna lead to a whole disgruntled fan base.

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People of Eternia! I stand before the Great Eye of the galaxy. Chosen by destiny to receive the powers of Greyskull! This inevitable moment will transpire before your eyes, even as He-Man himself bears witness to it. Now. I, Skeletor, am Master of the Universe!

@Sports, the transfer prices in EPL and Juve for forwards escalated 10 to 15%. That’s a long way off the 100% and more for Pogba, Neymar, Mbappe and Dembele. I’ m sure Real won’t have a problem competing in the new market place as in EPL, Juve, but they will be reluctant to get involved in this artifical 100% escalation market that is basically 2 clubs. Two clubs, 4 players do not make the market. If one of them manages a major trophy then maybe this will warrant a further review, but until then, it’s an artifical market.

This is gonna give our club the wrong impression. APOEL has been seriously awful. Bad defending all over and not due to intricate passing and what not. That being said, hopefully this helps with their confidence. I mean, it should right?!

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People of Eternia! I stand before the Great Eye of the galaxy. Chosen by destiny to receive the powers of Greyskull! This inevitable moment will transpire before your eyes, even as He-Man himself bears witness to it. Now. I, Skeletor, am Master of the Universe!